Here we go!

I have booked my round the world ticket for Friday 31stJuly 2015, leaving the UK that afternoon! My adventure begins. For real now!!!

I thought this might make me feel some trepidation – is it right? Will I be safe? Will it really be as fun as I have been imagining? Or will it fall down once the reality sets in?

But I don’t. It feels ‘right’, the right thing, the right fit, the right time. It feels actually quite ‘normal’ when it is anything but. Maybe it’s because I have lived it in my dreams, in the steps forward every day, and the vision constantly that makes me know its right and it will work because I have spent so much time on it, and so much of myself invested in it and invested in me for the efforts that it does feel ‘normal’ now.

Normal is a funny word with different connotations for different people and the focus you put on it or take off it!

I have today bought my rucksack – a grey Osprey 70 litre pack (one of the largest sizes!), with joined day bag which will be useful – big enough for all my clothes, cosmetics (yes, I need some bits!) and shoes (practical, not fancy heels!) and tech stuff too. in itself it only weighs 3lbs so is very light, fits my body well, and looks OK too (I am only short!)

I have done the injections, the visas are being processed as I speak, the ticket is on its way and I have my itinerary online. I have made links with people and got tips from unexpected sources even today!

I have used Airbnb for the first time, practicing in case I use it abroad, whilst I have to find places to stay in the UK until I go – and another couple coming to stay at the same place, we overlapped as I stayed on extra days – and I know them, and they used to live in Malaysia and are well travelled themselves so giving me tips and ideas on what to do, where to stay and visit etc.

And another friend has given me tips and links to his wife’s family in Thailand, to stay in their village, the railways to travel ret he war and places to see, in detail which is most welcome! I have his wife’s Thai number now too to arrange the stopover to see the ‘real thing’ in paddy fields nearby. Apparently there are tea plantations to climb to and sip tea at in Malaysia which is something I didn’t know or hadn’t thought about! Feeding eagles, jungles to visit and beaches to sit on. Now that will be novel for me having had children to care for in the past, and not been away for a while! Let’s see if I get bored just sitting …

So far so good! People are excited for me, helping me and wishing me luck which is lovely!

But the coincidences with people I am meeting again, and at the right moments, is spooky to say the least! Like this couple who I knew a few years ago, and the house I am staying in with our children knowing each other …

Again, this puts me in the belief it’s a universal message I am on the right track…